BROTHERS IN ARMS
by Digintegrated - Hunter Bill
Disclaimer : As usual... Squaresoft gets all credits, but this time, the El*** and the St*** G*** are mine (erm, find out by yourself what I'm talking about, I don't want to spoil my own story!).
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CHAPTER 10
NEW LEAPS
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Squall had resumed his usual calm attitude. Rinoa was thoughtfully watching him...
"Squall...", she asked him. "May I talk to you for a while? In the corridor?"
He thought, then replied:
"If you want it..."
Rinoa could hardly get over it. Squall seemed more and more receptive. He would never have accepted it some days ago... Quistis didn't say a word, but thought the same way. So the two headed to the carpeted corridor.
Once inside, Rinoa asked:
"Remember, the room with the moat... you told me you will talk about it later..."
"Oh, this...", Squall recalled. "It's because..."
The young Gunblader had much trouble finding the right words. Why? Was it really due to the fact that he could not show his feelings or because Rinoa was intimidating him? He eventually managed to say:
"I was worried for the three people in the dungeon."
Rinoa said nothing, but she remembered the moment where Squall had declared almost the same thing. It was at Fisherman's Horizon, right after the BGH251F2 machine was destroyed... Since then, he confessed her many times he confessed his recent need to protect other people. Each time she could hardly believe he was saying the truth, but as time passed, he was more and more credible. But was he really worried? Was he still concealing his feelings from her?
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no, not at all!", she quickly told him back. "Remember what I said in FH?"
"What?"
"Don't make me believe that your Guardian Forces made you forget this too!"
"No... don't fret, I have it back. You told me they're my comrades, but moreover, they're my friends, am I not mistaken?"
"This is correct. You remember it well, you know..."
"And then?"
Rinoa wanted to go straight to the point.
"You have really changed since then. I remember... in the forest between Timber and Galbadia Garden, when you were demoralizing poor Zell. It looked like you found it amusing..."
"Rinoa!...", Squall interrupted. He didn't want to hear more, but he was feeling that she was right in some way. "Sure", he thought. "Zell had made a big mistake in letting out that we were SeeDs from Balamb Garden... but why couldn't I do anything to cheer him up?".
And what was unexpected for him, was being almost congratulated by her for his devotion to the group!
"Rinoa...", he repeated. "Forgive me..."
"Listen, Squall... don't feel guilty for this, what matters the most for us is to make it back alive. For now, the three things that count the most for me are Ultimecia, then our four comrades from elsewhere..."
"True.", Squall added. "We still have no clue about their origins in space or time, but I hope we will solve their mystery soon."
He paused before asking her:
"And the third one?"
"Our promise...", she said, almost whispering.
"I'm still keeping it.", Squall murmured. "I'll be waiting here, I promise."
"Oh, thanks Squall!", Rinoa replied before hugging him. Squall hold her in his arms too. A while later, the door flung open and Zell came in.
"Uh oh... looks like I'm coming at the wrong moment again.", he said embarrassed.
"No! Don't worry, you're not!", Rinoa replied.
"If you got reasons to turn up this way, I won't blame you... So, what's going on?", Squall asked.
"We reduced this Bug Queen to smithereens and we retrieved our weapons.", the puncher declared in a triumphant voice. "Now you can get them back!"
Squall looked pleased.
"Excellent work, Zell.", he told him before coming back to the chandelier room with Rinoa.
He took his Gunblade back. All of the other fighters had already done so, Barrett was busy repairing his machine gun implanted on his right arm, with the help of Cid and the tools the pilot was carrying in his vest. The work was almost over. Tifa was hugging Cloud, whose sword was as always hooked on his back. Quistis and Selphie were wielding their weapons. Irvine checked if his shotgun hadn't lost shells. Angelo was quietly lying on the ground, gnawing at a bone.
"Yo, look! I ain't lying!", Zell told them as he opened the big doors.
Squall shivered with disgust. Cloud remained there, gaping. They all saw in the courtyard a hundred blue Bite Bugs corpses, then what was left from the Queen, an enormous pile of ashes in which were half-burrowed her violet-coloured sting and pincers.
"Sephiroth must be furious at the time.", Cloud declared.
"Yeah, and I guess Ultimecia must be too. Out of twelve, that makes eight servants terminated.", Squall added. "Okay, let's get back to the courtyard."
The ten fighters (eleven, if we include Angelo) walked to the fountain, placed at the centre of the courtyard, to find themselves at the junction.
"It seems that this chapel is the only way to the sentry box above us.", Quistis said. "I bet there are other things to see in this place."
"Yeah, I'm sure!", Zell approved. "There must be some of her minions out there!"
"So? Who's doing what?", Squall asked.
"What if we take the same teams as before and that we take the same paths again?", Barrett suggested. "I personally fancy to have Irvine by my side for his special ammo, and Selphie appears to get on well with her magic support."
Selphie became red with amazement.
"So, Cid? Zell? How about it?", Quistis asked.
"No prob, Miss Quistis.", Cid answered, still smoking his cigarette.
"OK.", Zell approved, squeezing his knuckles.
"Very good.", Cloud said as he noticed Angelo. "Er... and who's the dog coming with?"
"He's coming with us. I own this dog, his name's Angelo."
Hearing these words, Angelo immediately came towards his mistress.
"Let's meet again in the fountain. See you later and good luck.", Squall concluded.
And so the three teams parted. Quistis, Cid and Zell were heading to the left side of the Citadel, while Selphie, Irvine and Barrett followed the path on the right.
The two couples and Angelo had just entered the chapel, as imposing by its height as it was impressive with its decorations, even if the room itself had quite a modest surface for a church. A single nave was on the left, the right side being occupied by a stone staircase going up to the towers. After the series of columns forming the nave, was a huge pipe organ. The wall against which it was set had many multicoloured stained-glass windows, depicting many monster types: Caterchipillars, Fastitocalons, Grendels... and other creatures Squall and Rinoa did not know about.
"This one on the top-right", Cloud explained, "with his jumbo oval arms, is a Zemzelet. The other one on the left, with the sort of spider legs, is a Stilva. A very dangerous monster with merciless magical attacks."
"But Cid has quickly taken upon himself to learn these attacks, you remember that?", Tifa precised.
"Yeah, yeah, but this won't gonna help much. Cid is with Zell and the girl in orange, Quistis, right? So it's useless to think about enemy skills... What the..."
The stained-glass windows seemed to come to life... A second later, a Fastitocalon got out and fell right upon the group. Squall didn't waste time and smashed it with his Gunblade.
"But... what in all creation is...", Tifa stammered, surprised.
Rinoa, as nimble as Squall, cast her Blaster Edge on the Caterchipillar that had got out of the window. Tifa got over her surprise and gave a violent elbow punch to the crawling insect to finish it. But this wasn't over yet.
The Zemzelet had soon turned up too, and introduced himself with a Thunderbolt. Cloud, furious because of the electroshock, countered with a serious sword attack. Even if it surpassed the four comrades by size and height, the monster couldn't resist Cloud's strength and fell, lifeless, on the ground. Then, a Grendel took its place.
"A Grendel", Squall commented, "is a dragon-like creature, attacking essentially with its claws and fangs. Consequently, a very physical type of opponent."
Cloud raised his sword, waiting for the beast, observing the group with its small eyes, to charge. It made an outstanding leap and rushed towards Tifa. The girl failed the uppercut she wanted to give and found herself on the ground, trapped by the beast's paws.
"NO!", Cloud yelled, before running to the monster, his sword still raised in the air. The blade notched the thick skin of the Grendel who grunted and let its prey go away. Angelo took opportunity to bite the monster's throat. No matter how Grendel shouted, groaned and shook, the dog didn't want to let go. Tifa, once freed from the monster's grasp, cast a Quake to make it pass away.
However, the Stilva that Cloud had pointed before was going out of the window and taking its real size. The creature had a mantis-like body, but brown, and in addition to its two long arms, it had six big legs. It almost looked like a spider. Before our comrades had time to say a word, the monster made a demonstration of its special skill, that Cloud dreaded: the Magic Breath.
Multicoloured bubbles filled the room and hit the team. All four of them got burnt, frozen and electrocuted. In ten brief seconds, they were all down. Squall and Rinoa had fainted, but Cloud got up. He immediately raised his hand and shouted: "Stop!"
The monster moved slower and slower, then completely froze.
"Very well...", Cloud said. "This gives us time to take action. Let's take care of them, Tifa."
They brought Squall and Rinoa round with their curative spells. The two got up and saw their motionless opponent. Cloud resumed his explanations:
"We've been victims of the Magic Breath, the most dangerous attack this monster is able to give, because of its triple elemental nature. There's no time to waste, we must terminate it before it regains consciousness!"
Tifa cast a Quake, soon followed by a Bio from Cloud. Meanwhile, Stilva took blow after blow but started to move slowly. The beast was almost about to invoke a second Magic Breath.
"Squall.", Rinoa suggested. "Try to distract this monster while I finish to prepare Ultima."
The Gunblader quickly understood and cast Flare. Stilva got disorientated and clumsily cast a part of its magical powers back onto itself. For Rinoa, it was now or never. The girl raised a hand, faced Stilva and invoked Ultima. The creature died, as it got wrapped into the green magic energy globe.
The five corpses started to rot, then disintegrated. At the same time, the stained-glass window at the centre lit up. Squall couldn't distinguish what it depicted, but despite the dazzling light, Cloud could see the shape of an enemy that looked familiar to him.
"What's up, Cloud? You're as hypnotized...", Squall told him.
Cloud closed his eyes and turned away from the stained-glass window.
"It's nothing. I think I know in advance who our next enemy is. Be ready to land in a swamp!"
"That's impossible!", Tifa exclaimed.
"Which swamp?", Rinoa asked.
She rapidly obtained an answer. The surroundings started to wave, as it did during the battles between the SeeD and the Sorceresses from all times. In a moment, the chapel vanished. The fighters, Angelo included, were out again, in a place Cloud and Tifa seemed to know, but was looking remarkably strange for Squall et Rinoa.
Swamps. Swamps as far as the eye could see...
"Wait a minute, Cloud. How could you know about this swamp thing?", Squall asked.
"Because... we have fought monsters coming from our world along with creatures coming from yours. And the monster on the centre window belongs to our world, at least I think so. There's only one place where we could meet it."
"So, we are... at your place?", Rinoa asked.
"I'm sure we are.", the swordsman replied. "We must be close from Midgar now, do you see the Meteor?"
Indeed, the four could see, somewhere in the sky, the big glowing asteroid that was inevitably going to cause the end of the planet.
"Look out, it's coming that way!", Cloud shouted. He pointed to a place with his sword. The three other people saw something ploughing the muddy lands and drawing closer to the team. They took their stands.
"Midgar Zolom...", Tifa said. "The swamp snake. How come it's still alive? Sephiroth had impaled this creature before, right?"
"I don't know...", Cloud replied. The swordsman hadn't lowered his weapon.
Suddenly, a huge greenish snake sprung out of the marsh. Its height of fifty feet made him surpassing everybody. It lowered its head and observed the team, with its yellow eyes.
"Issssssss that ALL Ultimesssssssssia bringsssssssss me to eat for today?", the snake hissed. "Anyway, I have to do with-th-th-th it!"
"Wait. You've talked about Ultimecia, haven't you?", Squall asked. "How come she could have any thing to do with you since you're not from the same world?"
"It'ssssssss easy to undersssssssstand..", the snake continued, waving its forked tongue. "Indeed Sssssephiroth brought me to death-th-th. But the knowledge of thisssssss warrior, combined with Ultimessssssia's sssssssorcery, in addition to time compressssssssion made it very easy to ressssssssurect me and make me become one of his mosssssssst devoted ssssssservants... or rather THEIR ssssssservants. Anyway, thissssss doesn't matter... you're going to die!"
~~
"You know, Cid... you may simply call me Quistis.", Quistis said to Cid as both of them and Zell were walking past the chapel, by the left path.
"As you wish... Cigarette?", Cid offered.
"No thanks. Keep them for you, none of us smokes anyway.", the SeeD instructor replied.
They were in front of a small building, stuck to the ramparts. It had a door and windows in more modest sizes than the other doors and windows in the castle. The building looked ridiculous compared to the chapel, the manor or the towers. However, a detail drew Cid's attention: a sign was placed near the entrance, and it read:
THE BLACK DEATH LOOMS HERE
"Weird message...", Cid said, intrigued. "Your witch must love riddles... First in this Blue Magic book, now this house..."
Nevertheless he went on reading. The next message was written in small letters:
Your saviour will be my failure
"What does that mean?", Zell asked, taken aback.
"What saves us could be hazardous to someone or something?", Quistis commented, thinking. "Maybe this house could give us extra information."
"Like one of Ultimecia's minions for example!", Zell added in excitement.
"Er, Zell, besides fighting all the time, what do you enjoy in life?", Cid asked him in an almost nagging tone.
"Me... I dunno.", Zell answered, embarrassed. "Maybe hotdogs... But there are never enough of them for all of us in our Garden."
"Poor Zell actually always comes to the cafeteria when there's none of them left.", Quistis precised before laughing up her sleeve.
Cid smiled as he heard Quistis. Zell didn't know what to say.
"Don't worry, Zell, I'll try to pre-order some for you, next time.", Quistis reassured. "Well, should we go now?"
Cid unlocked the door with the key he found in the fountain, and Quistis opened it. The building was a sort of hangar, in which were many gardening tools and stone blocks. Some of these blocks were partly cut into statues. Many torches were providing some light to the room. But when the three of them came in, the biggest statue came into life and marched towards them. It was a giant humanoid, around eight or nine feet high. Its body was completely modelled in dark stone. A Stone Golem...
"As you have read it at the entrance, I am the Black Death... I'm your death!"
~~
Once they made their way to the ramparts, Selphie, Irvine and Barrett took deep breaths.
"Woo... these stairs are way too tiring!", Selphie remarked, as she was exhausted.
"Don't complain... when I was in Midgar I got landed with 59 floors to climb by foot with Cloud and Tifa, just to avoid being spotted in this cursed ShinRa Tower!", Barrett retorted.
"59?", Selphie repeated, staring wide-eyed. "The tower of this meteor fortress is 59 floors high?"
"A bit more in fact... I was no longer feeling to take a single staircase after having visited this tower... although we really needed to act discreetly and take the service staircase rather than rousing a whole bunch of ShinRa soldiers, don't you think? Cloud was somewhat right about this..."
"If you wanted to act discreetly...", Selphie said. "then what did you plan to do there?"
"Cloud wanted to rescue a girl, held captive as an experiment subject...", Barrett started.
Selphie recalled Laguna at that time. In the dreams she and the other SeeD have done, Laguna had done something similar: he had saved Ellone... and Ellone was this extravagant Dr Odine's obsession, since the scientist wanted to study about her gift at all costs...
"One question: did that girl have something particular?", Selphie asked.
"In some way she did. She told me she could communicate with the planet, but I don't remember exactly... Anyway, Cloud saved her, but Sephiroth killed her some days later."
Irvine and Selphie remained gaping.
"Cloud is annoyed with himself because he couldn't have saved her from the blade of Sephiroth's long sword. It's also one of the reasons why he's still looking for this cursed guy."
"What was her name?", Irvine asked.
"Aeris, I think...", Barrett answered.
"What a beautiful name..." Selphie said.
"Yeah... it's a shame she's not in our world anymore. Although..."
Barrett hesitated.
"Eden... and Aeris... their voices sound strangely almost the same."
"Do you think our Guardian Force Eden had something to you with that girl, Aeris?", Irvine asked.
"Could be...", the juggernaut replied, scratching his head with his unique hand.
At the same moment, a really hideous winged monster came out from nowhere. It had a greenish-coloured humanoid chest, equipped with two long arms ended by two disproportionate clawed hands. Its two blue wings were spread from its back. Its head was topped by a yellow comb and also had a beak from the same colour. Lastly, a long black sting was hanging from the bottom of its body.
"An Elvoret ? Like the one we met in Dollet's Communication Tower?", Selphie said. "Bleh... it's too ugly!"
"According to its colour, it's an Elmorimax. Even worse than Elvoret... ", Irvine added. "I heard about these creatures while I was still studying in Galbadia. I think it's a good opportunity to test our ammunition, Barrett!"
As Elmorimax dashed towards them, the three fighters drew their weapons.
~~
Midgar Zolom was staring at the four fighters, who were awaiting for it to go into the attack. The snake made a sudden dive towards Cloud who showed his remarkable agility in a side-jump, avoiding the head of the snake. The monster was consequently obliged to take Cloud and Squall's sword bashings, in addition to Angelo who had gripped its tail with his jaws. However, the snake managed to get rid of the dog, who got hurled some yards further, but rapidly got back on his paws.
"I'm going to teach you not to harm my dog...", Rinoa said angrily to the snake who raised its head. She shot her Blaster Edge and cut its skin, but the creature dashed upon Rinoa and blocked her with its mouth in no time. Panicked, Squall ran to it and exploded his Gunblade on its right eye, assisted by a Thundaga coming from Tifa.
Rinoa wasn't feeling good: she was poisoned by Midgar Zolom's breath. Nevertheless, she got quickly cured with a Remedy from Tifa.
"You have not ssssssseen everything of me yet, curssssssssed fightersssssssss!", the snake retorted.
As it folded itself down, its left eye, still unhurt, became glowing red. Then it raised its head in the air, its mouth wide open and giving a hoarse cry. At that time, a huge red-orange-coloured magic cone surrounded our comrades. Midgar Zolom had its special trick in store for them: Beta, a powerful Fire spell.
"Uuurgh... it's too hot!", Squall shouted.
"I'm stuffing in there!", Tifa said.
"This is infernal...", Rinoa added.
As the magic cone dissipated, the four could really hardly stand.
"Very well...", Cloud thought. "If you choose to play like this... let's fight against fire with fire..."
He cast Regen-All on the whole team, then asked:
"Rinoa... make him shut up!"
"Okay.", she replied. She cast Silence just after. The white mist hit Midgar Zolom. The snake stayed frozen for a while, its mouth still gaping. Rinoa managed to neutralize its magic powers.
"Hey, I want to have some fun too!", Tifa continued in a smile, before she invoked another Thundaga. The snake got sledge-hammered by the lightning bolt and stiffly raised itself. Cloud and Squall ran towards it, shoved both of their blades to the hilt into its body then, still gripping their weapons as tight as they could, leapt in the air and slashed the snake's body in almost all of its length.
"I hope you enjoyed this double Climhazard!", Cloud said in a mocking voice.
Midgar Zolom was already turning into dust. Angelo shook himself and rejoined Rinoa, who was recovering, like the three other people, from the dreadful wounds inflicted by the Beta spell.
"One less again...", Squall said. "Well, where are we going now?"
"No idea...", Cloud answered in a doubtful voice. "If time compression allows us to move through time and space, there must be a way to return to Ultimecia's castle."
He hadn't finished his sentence as the landscape started to melt again. All of them were transported in a place that wasn't Ultimecia's castle at all. Their leap had carried them in a big cave, with blue-shaded stones, and also...
"Mako falls...", Tifa said. "We're in the Northern crater."
"Your place again?", an exasperated Squall asked. "If we go on like this we'll be lost in space and time!"
"What can I do about it? I'm not responsible for controlling our leaps in space and time.", Cloud retorted. "Don't accuse me without reason."
"Hey, I'm not accusing anyone!", continued Squall in a shocked voice.
"Hey, you two", Rinoa interrupted, "you won't solve this problem with endless arguments!"
The two stopped their quarrel then.
"Besides, we're going to check if our friends are still in this place, while we're here.", Tifa suggested.
They went down a track, winding through the cave, deeper and deeper, with falls of green energy on their way.
"So this is what you call Mako?", Squall asked, as he was observing the falls.
"Indeed.", Cloud explained. "It's our planet's spiritual energy. If it ever came to disappear, all life forms present on this planet would definitely be annihilated."
"This looks horrible...", Rinoa said, terrified. "And you want to prevent Sephiroth from getting it?"
"This was what we were trying to do when your enemy, Ultimecia, had cast her time compression.", Tifa replied.
Rinoa was watching the Mako falls with an admiring look.
"Besides it's really beautiful to see...", she said.
"Our materia come from Mako energy.", Cloud added. "I wonder how you people use magic in your world."
"Our Guardian Forces allow us to draw magic at some places, also known as draw-points.", Squall explained. "Magic is used against our enemies but also to boost our physical abilities."
"I understand...", Cloud said.
The group had reached the edge of a big hole, at the bottom of which was some jelly-like matter. On the edge...
They first saw lying on the ground a girl with braided black hair, tiny and thin, wearing white shorts and some kind of green jumper without sleeves. Her left arm was heavily protected, it even seemed to be incredibly bigger than her very thin right arm. She was still holding what seemed to be her weapon: an iron cross with pikes on each of the four extremities. A man was also lying next to her. He was dressed in black, and was wearing a red cape. His long black hair were held by a red bandanna. A gun was holstered in his belt. Squall and Rinoa were amazed by his left arm and hand, which were completely metalled. Near them was a tiny creature, looking like a white and black cat, perched upon a small and stocky white monster. Lastly they could see a quadruped creature, with orange fur, half-cat, half-dog, bearing a brown mane and two bird feathers on its head. Its tail was flaming and its body was tattooed, more particularly with the figure XIII, that Squall noticed first of all on this... animal.
All of them were on the ground, unconscious.
"Our comrades!", Cloud exclaimed.
Tifa came closer to the four and touched them one by one.
"They have fainted.", she said. "No need to rely upon them, sorry..."
"Yeah, I know...", Rinoa said. "These are the four people who didn't follow you."
"Yes...", Cloud replied. "Here are Yuffie, Vincent, Cait Sith et Red XIII..."
Squall looked closer to Red XIII. "That fur, that colour...", he thought. "It looks similar to the Moombas'."
~~
The Stone Golem was quite impossible to destroy. Even Zell couldn't do with the force of his fists. This annoyed the young man who then used Quake. The creature got down with the earthquake but quickly pulled itself up.
"Friggin' hell... I can't stand it any longer!", he said.
Cid was staring at the monster, and was clutching the handle of his spear. Something was somehow disconcerting him... the words written on the sign. What could they mean?
"Your saviour... my failure?", he thought. "What does this opposition stands for?"
"Cid! Do something!", Quistis said as she just dodged the Golem's fist.
He complied and took out some dynamite. He lit the wick with his cigarette and threw the dynamite in their enemy's face. The Golem roared with anger after the explosion.
"If we have to make it explode... Flare!", Quistis declared.
An enormous heat ball took form around the creature who nearly suffocated, but that still wasn't enough...
Zell received the monster's fist head on. He furiously retaliated with the technique he used to defeat the Queen: the Meteor Barret. The energy impact was such that Zell got through the Golem's body and left a hole in its torso. Around them all were scattered debris coming from the stone body. Unfortunately, this didn't suffice.
"What the hell is this ???", Zell exclaimed.
"You presumptuous man!", the Golem roared. "Look what you get when you annoy me!"
It pointed shiny eyes to Zell. At that moment, the young SeeD's body froze and started to radiate. Quistis and Cid turned away from the dazzling light. When the light ceased at least, they seemed to see the absolute horror: Zell was petrified!
"Damn it!", Cid shouted.
Quistis countered with another Flare, but the Golem overcame her and petrified her too.
"QUISTIS! $£*+%§&@#!!!"
Cid's swearing could be heard throughout the inner courtyard. The spearman, horror-struck, turned away from the creature and his two petrified comrades. He had to do something... anything... but now! Then, all of a sudden, he got an idea... He drew out of his pocket a greyish-coloured ball-like item.
"The only one I have...", he said, "but if this thing could save them, I'm gonna see what it does on YOU!"
He quickly turned back and threw the ball as fast and as strong as he could to the monster. The ball splattered and squirted a colourless liquid. Cid watched with a surprised look the liquid eating progressively into the body of the Golem who was yelling:
"AAAARRRGH! I'm melting! You miserable fighter... you... have... won!"
Cid was proudly watching the stone colossus dismantling, shrivelling, as its body was dissolved by the liquid held in the Soft Cid had preciously kept in his vest. A moment later, there was just a tiny block of granite left.
"That's for you.", Cid declared with a victorious voice. He lit up another cigarette and was just about to smoke it when his eyes went across Zell and Quistis, still petrified. "I can't leave them alone, I'd better do something for these two! But what?"
Having found a way, he ran through the inner courtyard, heading to the room with the chandelier.
~~
Elmorimax was hovering back and forth around Irvine who couldn't hit him with his gunfire, due to the creature's amazing speed. Barrett was not shooting, though this wasn't in his habits. He wanted to spare his ammo in case the monster would be easier to shoot. However, Selphie made their work easier with a Slow she cast on their opponent to force Elmorimax to fly at lesser speed.
"It's up to you, Barrett!", Selphie shrieked.
The juggernaut sent a burst of Fire-type machinegun bullets. Elmorimax could hardly stand them. Irvine followed with half a dozen Fire Bullets too, and Selphie used her magic again with a Thundaga.
"Woohoo! Our magic's back!", she said in excitation.
Their most powerful spells were indeed operating anew. Elmorimax, however, had some surprises for the three of them. After it rushed on Selphie to send her with a claw swing to the other side of the sentry track (and making Irvine outraged), it blew out a puff of toxic gas from its yellow beak. Barrett and Irvine felt very uncomfortable and couldn't retaliate.
Elmorimax was charging at the two gunners to finish them, but Selphie, despite her wounds, managed to administer a second Thundaga to the flying creature before it was too late. The thunder strike was such that Elmorimax tumbled down into the inner courtyard. Selphie had time enough to cast two Esuna for Irvine and Barrett who immediately stopped suffocating, before their enemy came to charge again. The monster clawed Barrett, but the juggernaut was of course tougher than Selphie, and stood back up rapidly. Elmorimax concentrated to blow its bad breath once again, but this was an unforgivable mistake: a burst of AP Bullets coming from Barrett's machinegun and Irvine's shotgun tore its wings and made its sting explode. The monster fell, hit the ramparts, rolled over the rocks surrounding the castle and splashed in the ocean. A big vertical spray appeared over the water surface: Elmorimax had exploded just after its dive.
"Finally...", Selphie said, relieved. "I guess we really deserve this... Full Cure!"
A quick recovery later, Barrett started to speak again:
"What were we talking about before this thing attacked us?... Yeah... Eden and Aeris. I think the two must be linked, well... in my opinion."
"Maybe it's true...", Selphie said. "If Cloud and Squall and the others find this source of knowledge Eden told us about, they might get some clues."
"Yeah, yeah...", Barrett replied. "I wonder what they're doing now..."
Author's note : I told you that it was going to be longer! Er, by the way, have you noticed the little reference to FF9, with the killing Soft? Hehe... it's a crossover, after all...
Yep, it was another triple front fight... looks like I like this kind of multiple action. As the saying say, "the more the merrier"! ::ducks tomatoes:: No please, stop!
I know that too much battles could ruin the fun... don't worry, next chapter will be less tense.
Bonjour to:
Rosa Heartlily, Gemini83: cool to see you're still here. Rosa, I'm still awaiting for the next part of your Cid/Edea fic. And Gemini, congratulations again for your FF7 story. See ya at DSL!
Lady Aliena: I have heard of Starship Troopers, though never seen it. I didn't think about this movie when I created the Bug Queen... but I'm glad you liked it. Go on with your fics, you're amazing.
And also Mauka Icefire, Steven, Raven, Bea-chan: thank you all. Stay tuned in for the next parts!
Special notice: I've finished that fic but in French. The next and last chapters are stored in my hard drive, awaiting for translation and release. I hope it won't take too much time...Anyway, receive all my best friendly feelings from me,
~~ Digintegrated Hunter Bill ~~